]]>News: Eurostar has revealed a fleet of trains by Italian transport design studio Pininfarina that will serve a new range of European cities, marking the cross-channel rail service's 20th anniversary.

Rail company Eurostar unveiled the newly designed high-speed passenger train by Pininfarina at a press conference at St Pancras International station in London this morning.

Eurostar e320, named after its top speed of 320 kilometres-per-hour (200 miles-per-hour), will go into commercial service at the end of 2015 in time to operate on extended routes to Belgium and the Netherlands – due to commence a year later.

Photograph by Dan Howarth, copyright Dezeen

"The trains have a new livery, a fantastic interior, 20 per cent more seats and offer Wi-Fi across the train. We've also doubled the amount of seats for wheelchair users," said Eurostar chief executive Nicolas Petrovic, at St Pancras this morning.

Pininfarina, which has worked with car manufacturers Ferrari and Maserati, designed the train with reclining seats and increased luggage storage, plug sockets and mirrors in seat backs and touch sensitive light controls that "combine elegance with functionality" in Business Premier class.

"The brief was to have more seats, but at the same adding more comfort, which at the beginning seems to be a paradox," Pininfarina creative director Fabio Filippini told Dezeen.

"We tried to give overall a very coherent and cosy feeling through the train, independent of the class, to give more personal feeling to the space of the customers."

Photograph by Dan Howarth, copyright Dezeen

Thinner seats will offer passengers more leg room, while private booths with translucent glass screens will be available to business-class passengers.

In the buffet car, a curved white bar with rounded corners gives a "subtle sense of elegance" to the space.

"The combination of bold design, chic interiors and Wi-Fi connectivity will raise the bar, providing an unprecedented level of style and comfort for our customers," said Petrovic.

Photograph by Dan Howarth, copyright Dezeen

Free Wi-Fi will be available to all passengers, on which a new digital portal will provide information and entertainment including live news feeds, weather reports and Eurostar destination guides.

Pininfarina also added a range of grey and blue-toned seats to help "every customer feel their personal space."

"It's functional – you go to the toilet, you come back and you remember you're in this one, not the blue one," said Filippini.

Photograph by Dan Howarth, copyright Dezeen

The new fleet of 17 trains – seven more than are currently in circulation – will each be capable of carrying 900 passengers, boosting current capacity by 20 per cent.

Eurostar describes the trains as "inter-operable", with the ability to operate across the diverse Euorpean signalling systems, opening up the possibility to provide high-speed train services between the UK and other European city centre destinations.

Expanding on its current routes between the UK, Paris, Brussels, Lille, the French and Swiss Alps and Geneva, the new trains will operate a new year-round service to Provence, Lyon, Avignon and Marseille by May 2015.

Direct routes to Amsterdam with stops in Antwerp, Rotterdam and Schiphol are set to start late 2016.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/13/eurostar-launches-new-fleet-pininfarina-redesign-20th-anniversary/feed/17Barber and Osgerby to design trains for London's Crossrailhttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/14/barber-and-osgerby-to-design-trains-for-londons-crossrail-railway/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/14/barber-and-osgerby-to-design-trains-for-londons-crossrail-railway/#commentsMon, 14 Jul 2014 15:04:10 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=496247News: design duo Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby have been appointed to design the trains for Europe's biggest railway and infrastructure project. Barber and Osgerby – designers of the London 2012 Olympic Torch – won the tender to create the interior, exterior and livery for the trains that will be used on the Crossrail line, a new […]

Barber and Osgerby – designers of the London 2012 Olympic Torch – won the tender to create the interior, exterior and livery for the trains that will be used on the Crossrail line, a new cross-capital railway due for completion in 2017.

"Crossrail presents us with a historic opportunity to create a design legacy for London," said the designers. "London is the city that we both live and work in and we feel proud to have won this project. It gives us the chance to make a profound contribution to millions of commuters."

The duo will work with Transport for London (TfL) and UK train manufacturer Bombardier to design and build the trains. Each will be made up of nine carriages, measure just over 200 metres long, and capable of carrying up to 1,500 passengers.

Once complete, the Crossrail line will provide a new west-east link through central London, connecting Reading and Heathrow with Shenfield and Abbey Wood through tunnels beneath the city.

The line will connect with the existing London Underground and London Overground networks at a number of stations along its length, and will be coloured light purple on the city's iconic Tube Map.

"Following a competitive process, we are delighted to have appointed Barber & Osgerby to work as our design partner on the Crossrail trains," said TfL head of design Jon Hunter. "Without doubt, their vision and forensic approach to design will help ensure that the new trains will be iconic and befit London's newest rail line."

]]>News: entrepreneur Elon Musk has revealed designs for a supersonic Hyperloop transport system to link Los Angeles and San Francisco in just 30 minutes (+ slideshow).Hyperloop passenger capsule version cutaway with passengers onboard

Elon Musk, billionaire and founder of Paypal, electric-car firm Tesla Motors and space technology company SpaceX, has revealed designs for Hyperloop - a supersonic Jetsons-style transportation system for California. Travelling at over 700 mph, passengers would sit in a 1.35-metre-wide tube and be blasted through the 382-mile tunnel linking Los Angeles and San Francisco in just 30 minutes.

After months of speculation, Musk revealed plans to use magnets and fans to shoot capsules that float on a cushion of air through a long tube. "Hyperloop is a new mode of transport that seeks to change [a] paradigm by being both fast and inexpensive for people and goods," said Musk in the design study.

Hyperloop passenger capsule version with doors open at the station

In the designs, passenger capsules are transported at high speed through a low pressure tube, elevated over the land between the two cities. "The capsules are accelerated via a magnetic linear accelerator affixed at various stations on the low pressure tube with rotors contained in each capsule," Musk said.

Passengers would not notice the speed and travel by Hyperloop would feel a lot like being in an aeroplane, Musk explains. "It should really feel just super smooth and quiet. And there'd never be any turbulence or anything," he said.

Musk's twin city vision. San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes by Hyperloop

Well-known for electric cars, civilian space travel and a vision for interplanetary evolution and sending humans to Mars, the transportation tycoon says Hyperloop would be twice as fast as an aeroplane, cheaper than a bullet train and completely self-powered. It would be both weather- and earthquake-resistant.

Hyperloop capsule in tube cutaway with attached solar arrays

"If we are to make a massive investment in a new transportation system, then the return should by rights be equally massive," Musk said. "Compared to the alternatives, it should ideally be: safer, faster, lower-cost, more convenient, immune to weather, sustainably self-powering, resistant to earthquakes and not too disruptive to those along the route."

The designs for Hyperloop are open source and Musk has asked for feedback from others to advance the design and make it a reality.

Schematic of air bearing skis that support the capsule

The entrepreneur first mentioned Hyperloop in July 2012 and had left amateur designers, engineers and investors to speculate ever since. He described Hyperloop as the "fifth mode of transportation" - the previous four being train, plane, automobile, and boat. "It's not a vacuum tunnel, but a cross between Concorde, a rail-gun and air hockey table," he said at the time.

"The Hyperloop is something that would go effectively faster than the speed of sound. Conceivably you could live in San Fran and work in LA," he added.

Proposed Hyperloop route - San Francisco to LA in 30 minutes

Musk has also said his Hyperloop designs will rival the high-speed train already proposed in the US. "The $60 billion bullet train they’re proposing in California would be the slowest bullet train in the world at the highest cost per mile." he said. "They're going for records in all the wrong ways. The cost of the SF-LA Hyperloop would be in the $6 billion range."

Passenger capsules - 4.43 ft (1.35 m) wide and 6.11 ft (1.10 m) high

Watch a recording of Elon Musk talking about Hyperloop:

Musk's ideas for futuristic transport don't stop there. Speaking online during a Google "Hangout" event with Virgin Group CEO and founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson on Friday, Musk said he has another idea, to rival Concorde - a vertical lift-off supersonic electric passenger jet. He said that he envisaged journeys over 1000 miles long being done in aircraft that would travel faster than the speed of sound.

"If you fly high enough and have the right geometry of plane, you can make the sonic boom no louder than current planes," he said.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with Falcon 9 rocket. Photo: SpaceX

Musk commented that vertical take-off and landings would mean passengers could land closer to a desired destination - eliminating the need for large airports and long runways. Too busy - with electric car innovations, hovering reusable rockets and passenger flights to Mars - to launch into the vertical jet business just yet, he said: "If somebody doesn't do [it] then maybe, at some point in the future, I will."

When the California "high speed" rail was approved, I was quite disappointed, as I know many others were too. How could it be that the home of Silicon Valley and JPL – doing incredible things like indexing all the world's knowledge and putting rovers on Mars – would build a bullet train that is both one of the most expensive per mile and one of the slowest in the world? Note, I am hedging my statement slightly by saying "one of". The head of the California high speed rail project called me to complain that it wasn't the very slowest bullet train nor the very most expensive per mile.

The underlying motive for a statewide mass transit system is a good one. It would be great to have an alternative to flying or driving, but obviously only if it is actually better than flying or driving. The train in question would be both slower, more expensive to operate (if unsubsidised) and less safe by two orders of magnitude than flying, so why would anyone use it?

If we are to make a massive investment in a new transportation system, then the return should by rights be equally massive. Compared to the alternatives, it should ideally be:

Safer

Faster

Lower cost

More convenient

Immune to weather

Sustainably self-powering

Resistant to Earthquakes

Not disruptive to those along the route

Is there truly a new mode of transport – a fifth mode after planes, trains, cars and boats – that meets those criteria and is practical to implement? Many ideas for a system with most of those properties have been proposed and should be acknowledged, reaching as far back as Robert Goddard’s to proposals in recent decades by the Rand Corporation and ET3.

Unfortunately, none of these have panned out. As things stand today, there is not even a short distance demonstration system operating in test pilot mode anywhere in the world, let alone something that is robust enough for public transit. They all possess, it would seem, one or more fatal flaws that prevent them from coming to fruition.

Constraining the Problem

The Hyperloop (or something similar) is, in my opinion, the right solution for the specific case of high traffic city pairs that are less than about 1500 km or 900 miles apart. Around that inflection point, I suspect that supersonic air travel ends up being faster and cheaper. With a high enough altitude and the right geometry, the sonic boom noise on the ground would be no louder than current airliners, so that isn't a showstopper. Also, a quiet supersonic plane immediately solves every long distance city pair without the need for a vast new worldwide infrastructure.

However, for a sub several hundred mile journey, having a supersonic plane is rather pointless, as you would spend almost all your time slowly ascending and descending and very little time at cruise speed. In order to go fast, you need to be at high altitude where the air density drops exponentially, as air at sea level becomes as thick as molasses (not literally, but you get the picture) as you approach sonic velocity.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2013/08/13/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-unveils-open-source-designs-700-mph-hyperloop/feed/20Il Treno by Tjep.http://www.dezeen.com/2013/04/01/il-treno-train-carriage-seating-booth-tjep/
http://www.dezeen.com/2013/04/01/il-treno-train-carriage-seating-booth-tjep/#commentsMon, 01 Apr 2013 05:00:39 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=303673Milan 2013: Dutch design studio Tjep. will launch a dining booth inspired by old train compartments at Ventura Lambrate in Milan next week. Il Treno by Tjep. is a standalone dining booth inspired by the secluded compartments found on luxurious old trains like the Orient Express. A table hangs down from the overhead rack and small metal steps […]

Amsterdam-based Tjep. seek to infuse Milan with some of their ‘tjepology’ in an exhibition at the Ventura Lambrate area of Salone Internazionale del Mobile. Founded in 2001 by prominent Dutch designer Frank Tjepkema, the studio has garnered a reputation for iconoclastic work across a broad field of expertise that includes award-winning interior, architectural, product, furniture, and jewellery design. Countering globalised uniformity, Tjep. design for those who seek to rediscover individualism.

Il Treno

A standalone piece, this daring item creates an intimate dining experience reminiscent of the old secluded train compartments on the Orient Express. Il Treno is about intimacy and romanticism: for there is nothing better than enjoying fine cuisine while being transported to new landscapes. This modular unit is handcrafted in Ash or Oak wood and comes in two versions, one with storage for your fine china and one without.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2013/04/01/il-treno-train-carriage-seating-booth-tjep/feed/6Moving Platforms by Priestmangoodehttp://www.dezeen.com/2011/06/22/moving-platforms-by-priestmangoode/
http://www.dezeen.com/2011/06/22/moving-platforms-by-priestmangoode/#commentsWed, 22 Jun 2011 16:38:34 +0000http://www.dezeen.com/?p=134921Industrial designers Priestmangoode have revealed a concept for high-speed trains that would transfer passengers to local services while still moving, instead of stopping at stations. Update: this project is included in Dezeen Book of Ideas, which is on sale now for £12. By avoiding time-consuming stops, the Moving Platforms concept would allow faster long-distance journey times. Trams […]

]]>Industrial designers Priestmangoode have revealed a concept for high-speed trains that would transfer passengers to local services while still moving, instead of stopping at stations. Update: this project is included in Dezeen Book of Ideas, which is on sale now for £12.

Britain’s leading transport designer unveils the future for 21st Century train travel

Britain’s leading transport designer has unveiled his idea for the future of train travel. Moving Platforms is a completely inter-connected rail infrastructure where local trams connect to a network of non-stop high speed trains enabling passengers to travel from their local stop to a local address at their destination (even in another country) without getting off a train.

Paul Priestman of Priestmangoode is the designer of the Virgin Pendolino train and last year’s hugely successful Mercury high speed concept train. Moving Platforms is a totally joined-up network that allows passengers to transfer directly from one moving tram or high speed train to another. This new integrated infrastructure mimics the way the internet works, creating a system similar to the one that allows your home PC to connect to a computer on the other side of the world via a series of connected networks.

Moving Platforms involves a network of high speed trains that run non-stop between two ends of a continent, New York to San Francisco for instance. The high speed trains run on a line that passes outside towns and cities with a network of local feeder trams that carry passengers from local stops out to meet them. As they near each other, the high speed train slows down slightly and the tram speeds up alongside it, at which point the trains physically connect via a docking system allowing passengers to transfer directly across from the tram to the high speed train and vice versa. Once transfers are complete, the trains separate, with the high speed train speeding up again along its route, and the tram slowing down and going back into the town or city centre with the newly disembarked passengers. The tram, in effect, acts as a moving station. The same system could also be used by passengers transferring from one high speed train to another.

This idea is not as crazy as it sounds. There are plenty of examples in every day life where we step onto a moving vehicle: escalators, moving walkways, paternoster lifts, ski lifts and Ferris wheels like the London Eye.

We are trying to build a new 21st Century train service on a station-based infrastructure that was designed in the 19th century for steam trains. We should be re-thinking infrastructure and building an inter-connected local-to-global rail network.

Current plans for high speed rail will require a new network of major stations, taking up huge amounts of space and with a cost and environmental impact that is potentially vast. These stations function for the most part as large car parks that are packed during working hours and empty the rest of the time, and are only in use by passengers for short periods of the day.

The big problem with high speed trains is that they are not very fast. Slowing down and speeding up as they move between stations means they are only able to travel at their full speed for limited periods of time (wasting vast amounts of energy in the process). On long journeys, the non stop high speed train could save a vast proportion of any journey time.

We lose huge amounts of time in transit waiting at stations as we change trains. Moving Platforms would enable passengers to travel from their local stop to an address of their choice in another town or country without getting off a train.

Many rail passengers use cars to get to their main-line embarkation station, so being able to link up to the high speed train directly from a local tram or train service means we could reduce car usage in towns and cities.

Track infrastructure is already in place in many areas. On each train line, there are two tracks, one high speed and one local, next to one another. This means that potentially, Moving Platforms would not take up any more land.

Existing local stations would serve the feeder trams, enabling passengers from rural areas to access the high speed line easily.

Moving Platforms could also be used for local deliveries and freight. This will help get trucks off the road and ease congestion on motorways and in towns and cities.
A journey planner App would tell you what local tram or train to get on in Boston to go to a local address in San Francisco for instance, making travel simpler and easier.

“I can’t believe that across the world we are spending billions on high speed rail making it run on a network that was invented in the 19th Century. I’m under no illusion that Moving Platforms is a big idea, but if we really want high speed rail to be successful and change the way we travel, getting people off the roads and reducing the number of short haul flights, it is imperative that the infrastructure we use works with, not against, this new technology to enable a seamless passenger journey from start to destination. The days of the super-hub train station are over, connectivity is the way forward,” says Paul Priestman.